Agriculture
Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and International Trade Diversification Minister
Jim Carr said Monday that they have set up a working group to try to persuade
China to resume purchasing canola from Canada.
The group
includes representatives from the Canola Council of Canada, the Canadian Canola Growers
Association, Richardson International, Viterra, and the federal, Alberta,
Manitoba, and Saskatchewan governments.
Bibeau said the
group approach “will ensure a co-ordinated and collaborative approach towards
resolving this market access issue” and will “explore alternative markets, both
for the short and long term.”
Canola
exporters said they began facing customs clearance problems several months ago,
but matters grew considerably worse last month when China cancelled the canola
export registrations for Canadian grain handlers Richardson International and
Viterra.
Not long after
the block on Richardson was made public, the Canola Council said China’s block
appeared to be in place on shipments from all Canadian exporters.
Following up on
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement last week that Canada would look at
sending a technical delegation to China to pursue the matter, Bibeau said
Monday she has written her Chinese counterpart, Han Changfu, and requested to
send such a delegation.
The delegation,
Bibeau said, would be led by Dr. Siddika Mithani, president of the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency and would include CFIA’s team of plant health experts
“and the support of technical experts from the Prairie provinces.”
Bibeau said
federal plant health experts “are engaged and exchanging technical information
with Customs China, who have agreed to continue discussions in the near
future.”
Resolving the
China export issue is “essential for our farmers and their families, for our
agricultural industry and communities, and for the Canadian economy as a
whole,” Carr said.
“If there is a
problem with our shipments, show us the science, so our skilled and dedicated
industry leaders may rectify it.”
Carr said Canada is pursuing new markets via in the
U.S. and Mexico, the European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership
countries, and by “initiating discussions” with the ASEAN bloc in Southeast
Asia, which also includes Indonesia.
